Vietnam

Vietnam in Southeast Asia. Located on the eastern edge of the Southeast Asian mainland, it covers an area of ​​311,699 square kilometers. With a population of over 96 million, it is the fifteenth most populous country in the world. Vietnam borders China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and shares maritime borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand and the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia through the South China Sea. Its capital is Hanoi, and its largest city is Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

Vietnam has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. The first known Vietnamese nation in the first millennium BC was concentrated in the Red River Delta, in what is now northern Vietnam. The Han Dynasty annexed and placed the Vietnamese under Chinese rule from 111 BC until the first independent imperial dynasty emerged in 939. Successive imperial dynasties absorbed Chinese influence through Confucianism and Buddhism and expanded southward to the Mekong Delta. Nguyen, the last imperial dynasty, fell as a result of French colonization in 1887. After the August revolution, the nationalist Viet Minh, led by the communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh, declared independence from France in 1945.

Vietnam experienced a long war in the 20th century. After World War II, France returned to regain colonial power in the First War in Indochina, from which Vietnam emerged victorious in 1954. Shortly thereafter, the Vietnam War broke out, during which the nation was divided into the communist North, backed by the Soviet Union and China, and the anti-communist South, backed by the United States. After the victory of North Vietnam in 1975, Vietnam was reunited as a unitary socialist state under the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1976. An ineffective planned economy, trade embargoes from the West, and wars with Cambodia and China have wreaked havoc on the country. In 1986, the Communist Party initiated economic and political reforms, transforming the country into a market economy.

The reforms contributed to the integration of Vietnam into the world economy and politics. A developing country with a below average economy, Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies of the 21st century. It is part of international and intergovernmental institutions including the United Nations, ASEAN, APEC, CPTPP, Non-Aligned Movement, International Organization of Francophone Countries and World Trade Organization. He has twice served on the UN Security Council. Contemporary problems in Vietnam include corruption and a poor human rights record.